Learning to speak publicly—in online or in person—with confidence can be a huge career booster. It’s a valuable investment that pays dividends at your business meetings, presentations, and even job interviews.
Nancy Ancowitz presents regularly to a range of corporations, government agencies, and professional associations. As a presentation-skills coach, she has a knack for bringing out her clients’ strengths and personalities. Her approach is not only rewarding—it’s also fun.
Working with Nancy, you’ll learn to engage a virtual or in-person audience with your presence, hold your audience’s interest with powerful content, and deliver your message crisply and persuasively. You’ll get to the point with intelligence and passion, and inspire your audience to take desired actions. You’ll master a vital second language—body language—which can make or break your presentation. (You’ll even learn what to do with your hands!).
Afraid to speak to an audience?
Managing your jitters is completely doable. Via gentle guidance, strategic tips, on-the-spot grounding techniques—and practice—you can channel your fear into excitement and actually enjoy presenting. Most of the best speakers prepare behind the scenes, only to appear completely natural at the mike. So can you.
Tap Nancy’s presentation expertise to:
- Tame your jitters
- Create attention-getting content, including beginnings and endings
- Target your audience’s interests
- Speak with clarity, purpose, and authority
- Harness the power of body language
- Use your best voice
- Rehearse and fine-tune (with optional video feedback)
Testimonials
Few can enter a room and truly engage a group of 20 NYU graduate students, all full-time management & IT professionals, on a Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. – after already sitting through a two-hour lecture.
Fortunately, Nancy Ancowitz can. In this case, she did it from the chest-up while broadcasting through the lens of her webcam. Why? Because that’s what you do when you lead an Online Presentation Tips discussion for a Strategic Communications course that meets twice-a-week online. And it’s this ability to engage online audiences that makes Nancy a rare find in the digital workforce.
I recently attended Nancy’s Public Speaking: From Freak-Out to Fun presentation at the Financial Executive Networking Group and had no knowledge of what to expect. To my delight it was a motivating presentation about understanding who we are and how body expression directly affects first impressions. Nancy focused on our articulation of personal branding, presentation, body communication, and leadership development to help advance our career objectives. She motivates introverts to connect with others with confidence and provides other valuable tools. I recommend Nancy Ancowitz, and if I have another opportunity, I would attend another one of her presentations.
Nancy did a sort of miracle in two sessions. She is able to provide instructions for the best public presentation. I definitely suggest and recommend to consider the possibility of an investment in yourself with Nancy.
[Nancy] has great listening skills and offers genuine insight into what makes a successful leader. I’ve also witnessed Nancy in action as a professor at a graduate level communications course at NYU. I have participated as a judge in this course and have seen Nancy nurture a safe learning environment where students are pushed to excel, but in a measured and supportive way. Her enthusiasm for enhancing and developing effective communication skills is evidenced by the way her students interact with and support one another and with how quickly they are able to advance their own skills. This is quite impressive given the diverse makeup of her students. Nancy is a true developer of talent with a particular passion for helping her students do their personal best as presenters.
Nancy Ancowitz is a highly-skilled, highly-professional business communications coach who has conducted numerous career workshops for us at 92YTribeca. She consistently receives rave reviews from participants who feel she delivers important information in a clear, concise manner, and adds great value. Nancy is organized, intelligent, a great communicator and a pleasure to work with!
Nancy Ancowitz did a dynamite job working with me to take my speaking skills to the next level. We did four 2-hour coaching sessions together. Though I already had a good deal of public speaking experience, she helped me creatively craft the message toward TED-quality caliber. I’ve since done several dozen successful speeches based on the work with Nancy. An excellent coach!
Nancy brings multiple skills and talents to her work as an author, educator, and speaker. I’m honored to have collaborated with her in the past on a multi-part seminar series on the topic of public speaking that we presented to a major professional organization. First and foremost, Nancy is an undeniable expert in her field, the award-winning author of Self-Promotion for Introverts®, a blogger for Psychology Today, and an adjunct instructor at NYU. She is also personable, smart, funny, and a blast to work with – always open to new ideas and always creating something new and valuable for her clients and audiences. I highly recommend her to any person or organization looking to up their public speaking game, increase self-confidence, build and promote a personal brand, or help craft amazing presentations that will wow audiences. She is a fantastic resource and a real game-changer.
Nancy Ancowitz focuses on the entire presentation package, not just the spoken word. She quickly identified key areas of improvement and opportunity, and then followed through with real, tangible ideas and feedback that enabled me to quickly take my speaking to the next level
As the Director of Education at a center of the 92nd Street Y, I hired Nancy to lead classes and give talks on numerous occasions, particularly on the subjects of self-promotion, presentation skills, and other business communication skills. I exaggerate not: Nancy is everything you could want in a speaker or teacher. She comes impeccably prepared, knowing her subject and her audience and devising the right creative strategies to match them. She has an uncanny empathy that enables her to understand her audience’s emotional and intellectual needs. From an administrator’s perspective, she is a delight–someone you know will respond to your requirements and do the job right. I recommend her most highly!
Nancy Ancowitz coached me in preparation for a talk at the College Art Association. I found her through a designer who – thanks to Nancy’s guidance – gave a presentation on new art which brought me to tears. I had high expectations; then to my surprise, found Nancy’s coaching exceeded them. From the first phone call, she gave me invaluable pragmatic tips (regarding timing, venue, projection size, fonts, etc.). Although comfortable speaking to graduate students, I was a neophyte on the public conference stage so I might have overlooked these pillars of effective timing and delivery. Upon meeting Nancy in person, I found her exceptionally warm and supportive. Her genuine ebullience over the splashy contemporary art images (which I had spent days compiling) was affirming. We discussed a volcano introduction. Erudite, easily speaking on a metaphorical level with exemplary vocabulary, Nancy didn’t fail to impress as well as entertain me with her astute suggestions on each facet of the talk. Counting down the days to show time, she checked in a couple times via email and even sent me a galvanizing note on the night before. Affable and sensitive, Nancy is a superlative coach. I would recommend her to anyone.
From avoidance to real enjoyment: that’s the transformation in my attitude towards getting up and speaking that happened when I recently took a public speaking workshop with Nancy. Her curriculum extended over a period of several months and covered a full range of easy-to-remember tools, tips, hints and to-dos for effective speaking and making presentations. Materials included handouts stressing adequate preparation, making eye contact, appearance, voice modulation and even slide content. With her keen attention to detail, Nancy is highly creative and intuitive. She helps re-work and fine tune a presentation with just the right delivery and organization needed for success. She adds a very special touch based on years of experience and insight that is channeled from her native intelligence and sense of being helpful. Nancy is lovely to work with, positive and full of enthusiasm for her art and science – communications.